Erstsprachförderung bei Migrantenkindern in Kindergärten: Wirkungen auf phonologische Bewusstheit, Wortschatz sowie Buchstabenkenntnis und erstes Lesen in der Erst- und Zweitsprache

Zusammenfassung: Mit einer quasi-experimentellen Längsschnittstudie wurde bei Migrantenkindern im Kindergarten untersucht, welche Bedeutung die Förderung der Erstsprache für das Beherrschen der Erst- und Zweitsprache hat. Während zwei Jahren wurde die Sprachförderung in der Erst- und Zweitsprache mittels gleicher Themen und Geschichten im Unterricht koordiniert. Zudem wurden die Eltern dazu angeleitet, ihren Kindern zu Hause drei Mal pro Woche Geschichten in der Erstsprache vorzulesen oder Hörbücher in der Erstsprache abzuspielen. Die aufwändige Intervention hatte weder auf die Entwicklung der Sprachkompetenzen in der Erstsprache noch auf die Entwicklung der Sprachkompetenzen in der Zweitsprache Deutsch statistisch signifikante Auswirkungen. Die aufgrund der Interdependenzhypothese von Cummins erwarteten Transfereffekte zwischen Erst- und Zweitsprache ließen sich nur sehr beschränkt nachweise

Lernen von Null-Effekten. Eine Analyse von unerwarteten Effekten einer Interventionsstudie in inklusiven Klassen

This paper presents an additional, more detailed, analysis of the null results and unexpected outcome of a published intervention study. Pfister, Stöckli et al. (2015) report the results of an intervention study in mathematics in inclusive classrooms. In that study the general education teacher implemented an intervention aimed at supporting low achievers in mathematics lessons in 58 inclusive classrooms with 888 third grade students. Two experimental groups (n = 37 teachers) worked with the program, the third group (groupCONTROL; n = 21 teachers) continued to teach ‘as usual’. The experimental groupMAT (n = 16 teachers) was given the program material and the experimental groupMEET (n = 21 teachers) received the material and had two in-service training sessions. Contrary to theory-based predictions, groupMAT outperformed groupMEET. To try to understand this finding, in the present study we investigated the effects of the three treatment conditions on students with different levels of math achievement at t1 by using the data to estimate random slope models with cross-level interactions. Contrary to our expectations, high achieving students in groupMAT had significantly greater learning gains than those in groupMEET. Control variables at the individual and class level could not explain this outcome. The analysis highlighted the methodological challenges of studies conducted in complex inclusive education settings and raised the question of whether targeted support in an inclusive setting, without individual support outside of the classroom, can meet the needs of low achieving students in mathematics. (DIPF/Orig.)In der Publikation von Pfister, Stöckli et al. (2015) wurden unerwartete Ergebnisse und fehlende Effekte einer unterrichtsintegrierten Intervention für rechenschwache Schüler:innen in inklusiven Klassen berichtet. Im vorliegenden Artikel werden zusätzliche und detailliertere Analysen präsentiert, die dazu beitragen, die Ergebnisse zu verstehen und einzuordnen. In der Studie mit (N = 58 inklusive Klassen, N = 888 Drittklässler:innen) wurde eine unterrichtsintegrierte Intervention zur Förderung von rechenschwachen Schüler:innen von den Regellehrkräften durchgeführt. Zwei Experimentalgruppen (n = 37 Lehrkräfte) erhielten die Fördermaterialien, die Lehrkräfte (n = 21) in der Kontrollgruppe (GruppeCONTROL) führte ihren normalen Mathematikunterricht durch. Die Experimentalgruppe GruppeMAT (n = 16 Lehrkräfte) erhielt die Fördermaterialien, die Experimentalgruppe GruppeMEET (n = 21 Lehrkräfte) bekam zusätzlich zu den Materialien ein Fortbildungsangebot (zwei Nachmittage). Entgegen den Erwartungen machten die Lernenden in der GruppeMAT größere Leistungsfortschritte als die GruppeMEET. Um dieses Ergebnis zu verstehen, wurde in der hier präsentierten Studie der Einfluss der unterschiedlichen Interventionsformen auf Schüler:innen mit unterschiedlichen mathematischen Vorkenntnissen untersucht. Berechnet wurden Random Slope Modelle mit Cross-Level Interaktionen. Entgegen den Erwartungen machten Lernende mit hohen Vorkenntnissen in der GruppeMAT signifikant größere Leistungsfortschritte als vergleichbare Lernende in der GruppeMEET. Die Kontrollvariablen auf Individual- und Klassenebene konnten dieses Ergebnis nicht erklären. Dieses Resultat weist erstens darauf hin, dass es sehr herausfordernd ist, inklusiven Unterricht zu untersuchen und die verschiedenen Einflussvariablen zu kontrollieren. Zudem stellt sich die Frage, ob eine rein unterrichtsintegrierte Förderung den Bedürfnissen von rechenschwachen Lernenden gerecht wird und ob diese nicht auch eine individualisiertere Förderung außerhalb des Regelunterrichts benötigen würden. (DIPF/Orig.

Putting an explanatory understanding into a predictive perspective: An exemplary study on school track enrollment

Complementing widely used explanatory models in the educational sciences that pinpoint the resources and characteristics for explaining students’ distinct educational transitions, this paper departs from methodological traditions and evaluates the predictive power of established concepts: to what extent can we actually predict school track enrollment based on a plethora of well-known explanatory factors derived from previous research? Predictive models were established using recursive partitioning adopted from machine learning. The basis for the analyses was the unique Zurich Learning Progress Study in Switzerland, a longitudinal study that followed a sample of 2000 students throughout compulsory education. This paper presents an exemplary examination of predictive modeling, and encourages educational sciences in general to explore beyond the horizon of their disciplinary methodological standards, which may help to consider the limits of an exclusive focus on explanatory approaches. The results provide an insight into the predictive capacity of well-established educational measures and concepts in predicting school track enrollment. The results show that there is quite a bit we cannot explain in educational navigation at the very end of elementary education. Yet, predictive misclassifications mainly occur between adjacent school tracks. Very few misclassifications in the future enrollment of academic-track and basic-track students, i.e., those pursuing the most- and least-prestigious tracks, respectively, occur

Learning from null results: an analysis of the unexpected findings of a mathematical intervention study conducted in inclusive classrooms

This paper presents an additional, more detailed, analysis of the null results and unexpected outcome of a published intervention study. Pfister, Stöckli et al. (2015) report the results of an intervention study in mathematics in inclusive classrooms. In that study the general education teacher implemented an intervention aimed at supporting low achievers in mathematics lessons in 58 inclusive classrooms with 888 third grade students. Two experimental groups (n = 37 teachers) worked with the program, the third group (groupCONTROL; n = 21 teachers) continued to teach ‘as usual’. The experimental groupMAT (n = 16 teachers) was given the program material and the experimental groupMEET (n = 21 teachers) received the material and had two in-service training sessions. Contrary to theory-based predictions, groupMAT outperformed groupMEET. To try to understand this finding, in the present study we investigated the effects of the three treatment conditions on students with different levels of math achievement at t1 by using the data to estimate random slope models with cross-level interactions. Contrary to our expectations, high achieving students in groupMAT had significantly greater learning gains than those in groupMEET. Control variables at the individual and class level could not explain this outcome. The analysis highlighted the methodological challenges of studies conducted in complex inclusive education settings and raised the question of whether targeted support in an inclusive setting, without individual support outside of the classroom, can meet the needs of low achieving students in mathematics

Supply Chain Management in Process Industries: Empirical Investigations for Commodity Markets

Process industries (PI) have thrived in recent decades, but structural changes in the markets are currently putting both growth and profitability at risk. In a period of tumbling prices, supply chain management (SCM) is increasingly viewed as an essential lever for creating a sustainable competitive advantage. In PI supply chain related costs are, as a percentage of sales, on average more than twice as high as in consumer industries. Despite the interest in improving their supply chain function, many firms in these sectors struggle to implement best practices because of industry-specific constraints. Historically, the majority of SCM frameworks has been based on consumer industries and often does not take into account the context of PI. The objective of this dissertation is to close this gap and give practitioners guidance on their supply chain transformations: . What are the predominant characteristics of PI that impact the SCM environment? . How can the particular market environment of PI be translated into an adequate supply chain strategy? . In PI, what are the operational implications of investment decisions related to strategic asset development? Chapter 2 explores how industry specific properties drive inventory which is a powerful way to improve profitability. An inventory reduction of 10% in the primary metal sector would, ceteris paribus, increase the return on assets by 78% . Our empirical results show that factors such as capital intensity and transportation costs have a particularly strong impact on the supply chains in PI. This illustrates that SCM in PI is subject to - and follows - different dynamics than other sectors. Chapter 3 demonstrates why PI need different approaches than consumer industries when it comes to strategic SCM. More specifically, we identify four market archetypes that shape the SCM strategy of companies. Based on 24 in-depth interviews with supply chain managers and a survey of 477 respondents, the chapter investigates the positive effects on performance of companies that adopt a supply chain strategy characterized by the market archetypes. This strategic alignment is still lagging behind in PI, since only 32% of the surveyed companies have a supply chain that best reflects their business environment, which is about 40% lower than in consumer industries and indicates the enormous improvement potential that SCM holds for PI. The chapter concludes with two recommendations for managers in process industries seeking to successfully transform their supply chains. Chapter 4 looks at the impact of such transformative decisions in PI. In commoditized sectors, manufacturing is a core competency, and the related fixed assets are crucially important in securing a company's market position. But the required investments are particularly high, imposing fixed costs and implying operational constraints. Our empirical models show that companies follow with their investments the market prices, trading off volume flexibility and asset development. We present evidence that when we combine these two operational implications and examine their impact on the stock market valuation, the long-term effect on asset development overshadows the short-term impact on volume flexibility. This illustrates a potential conflict of interests as managers are incentivized to over proportionally increase/reduce investments into fixed assets in times of increasing/decreasing market prices to boost the share price in the short-term

Nuclear Emulsion Film Detectors for Proton Radiography: Design and Test of the First Prototype

Proton therapy is nowadays becoming a wide spread clinical practice in cancer therapy and sophisticated treatment planning systems are routinely used to exploit at best the ballistic properties of charged particles. The information on the quality of the beams and the range of the protons is a key issue for the optimization of the treatment. For this purpose, proton radiography can be used in proton therapy to obtain direct information on the range of the protons, on the average density of the tissues for treatment planning optimization and to perform imaging with negligible dose to the patient. We propose an innovative method based on nuclear emulsion film detectors for proton radiography, a technique in which images are obtained by measuring the position and the residual range of protons passing through the patient's body. Nuclear emulsion films interleaved with tissue equivalent absorbers can be fruitfully used to reconstruct proton tracks with very high precision. The first prototype of a nuclear emulsion based detector has been conceived, constructed and tested with a therapeutic proton beam at PSI. The scanning of the emulsions has been performed at LHEP in Bern, where a fully automated microscopic scanning technology has been developed for the OPERA experiment on neutrino oscillations. After track reconstruction, the first promising experimental results have been obtained by imaging a simple phantom made of PMMA with a step of 1 cm. A second phantom with five 5 x 5 mm^2 section aluminum rods located at different distances and embedded in a PMMA structure has been also imaged. Further investigations are in progress to improve the resolution and to image more sophisticated phantoms.Comment: Presented at the 11th ICATPP Conference on Astroparticle, Particle, Space Physics, Detectors and Medical Physics Applications, Como (Italy), October 200

Effects of early childhood interventions on learning trajectories in mathematics and German during compulsory schooling

Die Autor*innen untersuchen die Wirkungen frühkindlicher Bildung, Betreuung und Erziehung auf die Lernverläufe während der Schulzeit und differenzieren dabei nach deren Dauer und Intensität. Datengrundlage bilden die Zürcher Lernstandserhebungen (N = 1681). Für die Auswertungen bedienen sie sich eines "propensity score"-Verfahrens. Es zeigen sich teilweise signifikante Unterschiede in den Lernfortschritten, vor allem in Deutsch und teilweise auch in Mathematik, wobei eine frühe, aber nicht so intensive Nutzung vorteilhaft ist. (DIPF/Orig.)The authors examine the effects of early childhood education and care on learning trajectories across compulsory school, differentiating between duration and intensity. The data are based on the Zurich Learning Progress Study and comprise a sample of N = 1681 students. The authors use a propensity score procedure for evaluating the effects. They find close to significant differences in learning progress, especially in German and in part also in mathematics, whereby early but not intensive childcare turns out most advantageous. (DIPF/Orig.